“Before I take any questions, I need to address what I wrote on the back of the mound today. It was a personal thing. It has absolutely nothing to do with Sept. 11 or anything. I went on Twitter to see people making ridiculous accusations about what it means and it pissed me off. It’s completely unrelated. For people to take it a step further than that is just ridiculous. It’s a tragic day in our country’s history. It’s senseless and that’s all there is to it. So, shame on the people saying that. It’s completely unrelated.

“It’s a personal thing with me and a close friend of mine and training. That’s it. It has nothing to do with anything else. It pisses me off that people would say that, so I just had to clear the air on that. It’s a shame that it’s a distraction from a great team win. It’s ridiculous.”

Ryan Phillips

Ryan is a San Diego-based blogger who is a 10-year veteran of the sports writing world. He holds a journalism degree from Indiana University (yes he left San Diego for Bloomington, Indiana voluntarily). He has no pets and a crippling addiction to HBOGo.